The Littlest Things
by Justanothersinger
Summary: 'Y'know, screw that thought about Momo sounding like a B-Grade romance novel because Shintaro's far worse off than her, with all the blushing and doki-doki-ing and acting like a virgin maiden.' Unabashed late White Day fluff piece. Contains boy and android boy making out. You have been warned. T for suggestions of sexy times. Crossposted on tumblr as silverblueskyline.


The Littlest Things

A Kagerou Project Fanfiction

He shifts slightly in the chair, adjusting his legs and leaning forwards.

Music blasts loudly in his ears, the light from the screen throwing his face in an eerie light, making his pale complexion almost ghost-like, the collection of clicks a comfortable, continuous hum in the background,and in the short silences between, the fingers on his free hand idly tracing the top of his soda can.

He was in his element.

His element, his comfort zone. He can't even remember the last time he felt so content.

He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.

Ahhhh, peace.

He was utterly at peace.

But there was that feeling nagging at the back of his mind, clawing at his attention, breaking his little bubble of solitude and whispering in his ear.  
He opened his eyes again and groaned, sitting back up.

The hand on the mouse clicked the pause button on the video and he took his earphones out.

As much as he wanted to stay here, he really had some place he needed to be. The only reason he was here in the first place was because he'd slipped away under the pretense of taking a much-needed shower.  
Yet he stared at the screen for a long while after he'd closed the browser, unwilling to leave the room.

His eyes drift over to the little calendar at the bottom corner of the screen.

_03/14._

It reminds him of another date. And the other date reminds him of-

_Hushed voices in an open room…_

_The too-loud beat of blood pounding in his ears…_

_The smooth taste of chocolate that hid the strange tinge of alcohol…_

_Uncomfortably hot, shallow breaths, feather-light on cracked lips…even lighter than the fingers that brushed his cheeks…_

_And his own voice, almost completely unrecognizable, in a hoarse whisper , "Konoha… "_

He gets up from the chair abruptly, strides out of the room and the door closes behind him with a bang.

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He greets the boy sitting on the sofa, receiving a low murmur back.

"Sorry I took so long." He apologizes, "if you wanna go take a shower too, you may have to wait until the water warms up again."  
"I'm not taking one now."

"Oh, ok. I left the heater on though."

"Mm."

Shintaro flops down on the other end of the sofa, absently toweling his hair dry. Konoha appeared to be channel-surfing at the moment, now trying to decide between a soap that he and Momo watch occasionally or some kind of talent show.

Personally, Shintaro didn't exactly hate watching them but was there really nothing else on right now?

"It's quiet." Konoha muses as he finally decided on the soap, settling in to watch the show.  
"Well, yeah. Because no-one else is here right now." Shintaro points out. Everyone else had gone out to this part-time job that Seto had suggested. Shintaro was the first to volunteer to stay behind and watch the base, and after much undignified grovelling-the heat haze was worse than it had ever been and he really, _really_ did not want to go outside, Kido caved in and accepted, and chose him along with Konoha to stay behind.

Not exactly what he was aiming for, but it was this or running around in the sun.

Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Marry said that they were going for a special kind of job. It was only there today." Konoha continued, "Something about…she called it White Day."  
The hands on the towel stopped abruptly.  
"…Yeah."

"What's it about?"

"It's just a dumb holiday, nothing so great." Shintaro says, and on seeing the curious look on Konoha's face, relents and says, "Remember how we celebrated Valentine's Day last time?"  
"Yeah! We gave each other chocolates." It'd been Seto's idea. When he was at his last part-time job, one of his superiors had pushed some chocolates on him and as soon as he came home with them, there was this huge uproar.

Magically gifted with demonic red eyes they may be, but kids will still be kids, Shintaro muses.

"White Day is like a continuation of that holiday. The people who received chocolates and such have to give more chocolates and such back to their recipients. Speaking of which,"Shintaro continues, frowning,"Didn't Ene give you some chocolates on Valentine's?"

"Yeah, she did." More like she'd gotten someone else to make them for her. Konoha wasn't dying of stomach cancer, so definitely not his little sister. Probably Marry.  
"And I'm guessing you didn't get some for her." Great. Dense android crush or no, she'd be in a fine mood tonight. He mentally makes a note to delete as much blackmail material as he can-without suffering a mental breakdown-from his phone before she can get her hands on it.

"You gave me some too."

"…Huh?!" Shintaro stares at him, wide-eyed, "Well, yeah I did. B-But it's not like I made them myself or anything! Hell, you already know that! Seto gave them to me, remember?"

There had been only one problem about the entire Valentine's Day thing and that had been the chocolates Seto had received.

"You can't even remember eating them anyways. They were alcoholic and you were such a lightweight that you blacked out."

_A voice whispered close to his ear, chest pressed against his, their hearts beating overtime, beating in sync. "Shintaro…"_

"Besides, boys are supposed to give girls things on White Day." Shintaro finishes, as he rubs his eyes, resisting the urge to heave another sigh as he feels the heat on his cheeks. Oh god, now he was blushing over the guy. Great. Just great.  
He wasn't gay, or sexually attracted to males in the least, he'd had this talk with himself about 6571 times since that blasted holiday, he knew this for a fact already. Konoha didn't even remember what happened, so there was no reason to bring it up.  
He didn't even like Konoha in that way.

"Really?"

ShIntaro's heart stopped for a painful second before he realized Konoha was just continuing their conversation, not the train of thought that drifted across his mind.  
_Well, duh._ Maybe being dense was contagious or something. This very conversation made him feel like his IQ dropped a couple hundred points.

"Really." He echoes for lack of a better response and then turns his attention back to the TV. Konoha falls silent for a long while and just when Shintaro assumes that he'd given up on the topic and went back to watching TV too before he hears the sofa creak and feels the leather dip away from him and he looks back up to see Konoha scooting closer towards him.

"Momo told me it was a day we give presents back to the people we like." Konoha says it more to himself than to Shintaro, a thoughtful look on his face.  
"Don't you like Ene?" Shintaro asks, his words rushed as his heart starts to speed up.

Damn it.

"Momo said that the way I 'like' Ene is different from that kind of 'like'." Konoha continues, oblivious to Shintaro's jumpy behaviour, "She said it's that kind of like that makes my heart beat fast, leaves me breathless, unable to eat or sleep, but leaves me wanting something…more than I have."

_Since when did Momo start sounding like a trashy romance novel?_ Is what Shintaro wonders in the part of his brain that isn't suddenly paralyzed by Konoha's sudden outburst.  
"Ene is pretty and very nice. But I don't feel like that when I think about her.." Konoha sounds slightly guilty at this point, "I don't 'like' her."  
Y'know, screw that thought about Momo sounding like a B-Grade romance novel because Shintaro's far worse off than her, with all the blushing and doki-doki-ing and acting like a virgin maiden.

"I…see." How very eloquent.

"I like you."

And this time his heart really stops for as long as humanly possible, because how else can he suddenly explain the feeling that just exploded in his chest when he heard that?

He laughs because come on, it has to be a joke. Yeah that's it. This air-headed android just suddenly developed a sense of humor and is playing the NEET right now, there was no other explanation.  
Kano probably put him up to this.

Something touches his cheek and he flinches back, staring Konoha straight on.

His eyes were dead serious.

"She told me that I would want to kiss the person I like. And when I do that, it would fill every little hole that the 'like' left me with."  
"What…did she tell you what a kiss is too?" Shintaro asks, and he can barely hear his own voice, trying to tear his eyes away but held fast by that serious gaze.

"Why did you kiss me then, Shintaro?"

"…!" Shintaro grits his teeth, and grabs Konoha's hand, pulling it away with surprising ease, "…What are you talking about."  
"When we were eating chocolates, you suddenly leaned in and kissed me."

"Aren't you supposed to be a light-weight?" Shintaro's lost track of the words coming out of his mouth by this point, "You don't remember that. You can't remember that."  
"I remember." Konoha said, and his voice is as low as Shintaro's, "I remember talking to you, hearing you talk back. I remember the way you laughed, even when it looked like you were about to cry."

"I didn't cry."

"No, but you wanted to. I remember thinking that I wanted to cry with you. And after you laughed, you asked me whether there was someone out there who could possibly love you."  
Shintaro knew that already, he knows what's coming next too, because his memory of the incident is crystal-clear.  
"And when I said yes, because I like you too, you kissed me." Konoha is the one who looks vulnerable now, cautious yet tentative, "Why did you kiss me?"

"Why the hell else?" Shintaro snaps, embracing the sudden rage that fills him. He could deal with that, anything except the bone-deep hurt and loneliness that he had to live with for 2 years, "I liked you! I liked you then, I still like you now and I don't think I can even stop doing that. God knows I've tried."

" You…don't want to like me?"

"I can't stop anyway. And it's not like I don't want to like you." Oh God, he sounded like a tsundere high-school girl confessing to her crush, but his pride had pretty much flown out through the window as soon as the conversation had started, "I liked you so I kissed you, ok? Is that clear enough for you?"

"Yes." Konoha answers simply, before he leans in and kisses Shintaro.

…Well.

Shintaro automatically yanks himself backwards, "W-what are you doing?!"

"I'm kissing you."

"Yeah, I got that weirdly enough! But wh-"

Konoha cuts him off with another kiss to the lips, and this time it lingered a little more than the first, slow and gentle.  
"Because I like you." He answers, smiling.

Shintaro is pretty sure he's redder than his jacket at this point. "Yeah, you told me that." He mumbles, ducking his head to hide his blush, but judging by the warmth on the back of his neck and ears, he deems it a futile action.

Konoha wordlessly slips a finger under his chin and tilts Shintaro's head back up, staring at the red that paints his pale skin, until Shintaro finally grumbles, "What?"  
"You're pretty."

Shintaro manages to sputter out a "Bwha?!" before Konoha ducks back down for yet another kiss. Shintaro strains a bit more, trying to lean away from the kiss, but eventually gives up and lets himself be swept away, little by little.  
Again and again, they kiss and each time, the silent demand between them grows more and more insistent until their lips part and their kisses grow deeper, less contained.

It wasn't perfect. Far from it. Their kisses were messy and inexperienced, filled with shyness and eagerness in equal measure, there was an awkward clacking of teeth. It wasn't much different from the kisses they exchanged when they were drunk.

So why couldn't Shintaro bring himself to care?

Maybe it was the warmth seeping through his skin where Konoha's hands wandered, until they settled on the small of his back, oddly comforting. Maybe it was the rain of kisses that they both exchanged on the forehead and cheek, neck and nose and returns back to the lips as he eased Shintaro back into the sofa.

Maybe it was the way that Konoha would look at him and smile and say, "I like you."

It was probably these little things that made him feel so calm.

So…at peace.

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End file.
